New Year, New Books Day 11 (Part 1): Dahlia Adler + Behind the Scenes

Day 11: Behind the Scenes

Welcome to Day 11 of New Year, New Books! Today I'm featuring a super hip, super diverse and super sweet author with a book that I NEED TO READ!

1) Dahlia Adler

-author of Behind the Scenes (June 24th, 2014)

This gif doesn't even make sense, I just love it so so much.

So anyway. When I found out about Dahlia's upcoming book, I was all like, "BE STILL, MY CONTEMPORARY LOVING HEART." I want this book. *give to me* and you should probably add it to your Goodreads shelf

Title: Behind the Scenes
Author: Dahlia Adler
Shelves: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publication Date: June 24th, 2014
Publisher: Spencer Hill

Goodreads|Amazon|B&N

Summary from Goodreads: High school senior Ally Duncan's best friend may be the Vanessa Park - star of TV's hottest new teen drama - but Ally's not interested in following in her BFF's Hollywood footsteps. In fact, the only thing Ally’s ever really wanted is to go to Columbia and study abroad in Paris. But when her father's mounting medical bills threaten to stop her dream in its tracks, Ally nabs a position as Van's on-set assistant to get the cash she needs.

Spending the extra time with Van turns out to be fun, and getting to know her sexy co-star Liam is an added bonus. But when the actors’ publicist arranges for Van and Liam to “date” for the tabloids just after he and Ally share their first kiss, Ally will have to decide exactly what role she's capable of playing in their world of make believe. If she can't play by Hollywood's rules, she may lose her best friend, her dream future, and her first shot at love.

Ten Pre-2014 Books I WILL Read This Year
Dahlia's blog|Goodreads author page

I have a little bit of a problem. It’s a bad spending habit, really. Only, it’s not so bad, because it’s books, and books are really, really good. I mean, in a way, aren’t they all sort of free, because they’re so good? What? No? Oh, that explains why I live in a cardboard box now.

Anyway, I bought a lot of books this past year, but sadly, my job frowns upon skipping work in order to spend full days reading. So alas, I have a whole bunch of books just waiting for me to give them special attention in the new year…and that’s without even counting everything I’ll be racking up come 2014. Because let me tell you something, as someone in a fantastic debut class who’s read a lot of ARCs—next year’s offerings are going to be epic.

Until then, here are the books on my shelf that are getting top billing:

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore.This one was at the top of my to-buy list for such a long time, and finally, one day, I swore it would be my very next book purchase. It was…but I still haven’t read it. I’m determined to change that in 2014, not least because I’ve heard rumblings of comparisons to a manuscript by my extremely talented critique partner Marieke, and I’m all over the idea of having more feminist Epic Fantasy in my life.

Shadow and Bone, by Leigh Bardugo. I have to be honest—anything that so much at hints as having anything to do with Russia jumps to the top of my list. I loved both Tsarina by J. Nelle Patrick and Sekret by Lindsay Smith, which come out in February and April, respectively, and The Secret Daughter of the Tsar by Jennifer Laam is at the top of my to-buy list. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish this one and its sequel by the time the trilogy completes this year!

For Darkness Shows the Stars, by Diana Peterfreund. Noticing a pattern? None of these books are Contemporary. And anyone who knows me knows that Contemporary is about 90 percent of what I read. Which means that no matter how much I love an author—and I lovePeterfreund’s Secret Society Girl series—I’m always a little slow to pick up books in other genres. But given the wonderful things I’ve heard about both this book and the follow-up, which I also own, I’m making this one a priority.

Grave Mercy, by Robin LaFevers.Much as I objectively love girl-in-gown covers, they generally set off a “This book is not for your Contemp-loving soul” alarm in me, to the point where I don’t even bother checking what they’re about. So when I was at a YA trivia event and one of the questions was to identify which book was about a group of assassin nuns, my immediate reactions were: 1) I need to know the answer to this now and can’t believe I don’t already, and 2) And I need this book in my life last week.

Pivot Point, by Kasie West. I read The Distance Between Us right on time, but alas, I neglected West’s other 2013 release, and reviews from some of my favorite bloggers would suggest I greatly erred in that decision. And so Pivot Point is definitely high up on my list, as are both its sequel, Split Second, and On the Fence, West’s dual 2014 offerings.

Maid of Secrets, by Jennifer McGowan.Spies in court. This is my crack. I’m admittedly a little gun-shy of Historical YA—for some reason, it never seems to work for me as well as Adult does in the same genre—but given the luck I had with Tsarina and Sekret, I’m feeling renewed faith.

This Song Will Save Your Life, by Leila Sales.This is a book I don’t actually own yet, strictly because I’m neurotic enough to want to own all of a single author’s books in the same format for shelving purposes, and I already own Past Perfect (which I adored) in paperback. But trust that the second this is available in paperback, I’ll be buying it. And reading it. Yes, literally all in that one second.

If You Find Me, by Emily Murdoch. This book sounds so creepy, and dark, and compelling, and it’s one of those that kind of begs for the reader to be in exactly the right mindset for it. Given that I’ve been trying to stay in a rather light one with both my reading and writing lately, I haven’t yet picked it up. But I will. Oh, I will.

Froi of the Exiles, by Melina Marchetta.Took me long enough to finally pick up Finnikin of the Rock, given that Melina Marchette is one of my favorite authors, and now I’m dragging my feet at picking up the sequel. In fairness, when reading Finnikin, it’s sort of hard to imagine that Froi is someone you want to read an entire book about. But when enough trusted bookish friends say Froi is even better than its predecessor, I know I’ve got to listen.

This Lullaby, by Sarah Dessen. Weird confession time: I’m a Contemp fan who’s not in love with Sarah Dessen’s books. I know, I know—what does that even mean? I don’t really know. The truth is, I think the mistake I’ve made is in seeing the movie that was made from the only two books of hers I’ve read. Still, I was hesitant to pick up another one of hers. So why did I? Because my fabulous author friend Emery Lord (author of what will be one of everyone’s favorite Contemps of 2014, Open Road Summer) made a list of book recommendations on her blog, and literally the only one of them I hadn’t both read and loved was—you guessed it—This Lullaby. And so, I picked it up, and look forward to seeing if Emery and I are in fact perfect book twins. 

***GIVEAWAY***

Dahlia is giving away DVDs of three Hollywood favorites, since Behind the Scenes is a Hollywood Teen Romance! Here's what you could win:

I guarantee you: These are some of the best movies. I love them all and wish I own them on DVD. So if you win, I'll be making angry eyes at you *squints*

Rules of Entry:

1) OPEN TO U.S RESIDENTS ONLY

2) Don't cheat with your entries, I always check.

3) The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email, otherwise, I will be forced to pick a new winner.

4) The prize will be sent out at Dahlia's discretion.

5) Take the time to read this post with Dahlia. Authors are crazy busy and deserve as much love as you can give them.

6) GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Grand Prize Giveaway:

2 Surprise 2014 ARCs + swag

Yep, these will be from my own shelf. Yep, this giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. Yep, it is a surprise and I am not telling you what the ARCs will be but here's an idea of what MIGHT be in it:

Any of these books are fair game! But in the end, the winner will only get 2. And I promise that the surprise ARCs will be good:)

Here are the rules of entry:

1) OPEN INTERNATIONALLY
2) The winner has 48 hours to respond to my email. If not, I will have to pick a new winner. 

3) The prize will be sent out at my discretion, so I might take me a little longer than a week to get it to you.

4) In order to earn the maximum amount of entries, you can comment on EVERY SINGLE DAY of New Year, New Books!

5) GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway